Fox & Sons Taunton reviews

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

AVOID THIS AGENCY AT ALL COSTS

As a property manager with 12 years’ experience never have I ever had the misfortune of dealing with such a bunch of unprofessional, rude and incompetent people. Even if you happen to speak to the managers they are just as bad. Its as though no one working at the company cares about its reputation or repeat business. They literally treat you as though you are an inconvenience to them. We are a professional landlord with a portfolio of over 100 properties, I would dread to think how they would treat a one off landlord with little knowledge. The Colchester branch let our property approx. 6 weeks ago. When we instructed them we asked for a rent guarantee policy to be taken out (in writing as part of our instruction letter), after chasing for the policy for 2 weeks after the tenant moved in I was eventually told this had not been done and wouldn’t be done as they don’t provide this service unless they manage the property. I mentioned that it was included in bold in our instruction letter and the “area manager” said do you have in writing where we agreed to this… RIDICULOUS, by accepting the property and letting it that in-itself its agreeing to the terms. . I was given their terms and conditions to sign AFTER the tenants moved in and told they wouldn’t transfer any of the rent until they received the T&C’s back signed (despite us not agreeing with the terms).. in effect BLACKMAIL.To date we still have not had all the move in money from them, they are refusing to give us a statement with a breakdown of the money collected from the tenants/ their fee etc and we now have no other option then to seek legal advice from our solicitors. They have taken a fee from the move in monies without our consent, we do not even know what amount and we have never signed t&c's. Its unbelievable.As a professional landlords we have found them EXTREMLEY difficult and uncooperative and we have the benefit of experience and knowledge on our side. Unless you are prepared for a lengthy battle to get your money & paperwork AVOID THIS AGENCY AT ALL COSTS.

Kathryn · 4 December 2017

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Wednesbury Branch

Wednesbury Branch. I was moving house last Dec. They advised my home will be ready [new build] It wasnt ready till Feb. I was made homeless and they refused my complaint took my money deposit and fees and refused to refund. Avoid connells if it's your a 1st time buyer or need a home urgently as they are known to let you down. They also called me a liar when I advised I was garanteed my new home will be ready before xmas day, poor communication once my deposit was paid. Their management dont care about customer services once payment has been made. I would seriously avoid this company at all costs. Also from my expereince if your buying a new house go directly to the vender. Avoid connells like a plague. I have also cancelled all my investments and any b2b links as well as my associates as a result of this very poor and rude service.

Raj · 18 November 2017

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Horrible experience

My flatmate and I rent a property in St Albans last January for 6 months and all were problems. When my flatmate and I decided leave the property, they spent 3 months to give our deposit back and it was a horrible experience. The landlord only wanted our money. He said the property was dirty, when it was totally false. They checked the property 2 weeks after we leave and it's normal that the flat had some dust, obviously! They took 100 pounds in concept of cleaning... yes, 100 pounds! When the first day we arrived to the flat it was really, really dirty (for example; the freezer had a lot of ice with food on it, imagine?) and they didn't give us any reason. HORRIBLE EXPERIENCE, anyway

Sara · 29 October 2017

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Avoid at all cost.

This company is the worse you could deal with. They would never stick to what they say. To get your deposit back even after your land lord has released it, it will take you ages. I am here calling them everyday to get my deposit back for past 2 weeks I been given lies after lies. Unprofessional service. The management on the top level is the worst. This company hasn't got a long road given the reviews it seems it's not only the bedford branch, they don't care nationwide once they have your money and tries to get away with it. Day light Robers. Please avoid dealing with this rubbish people altogether to save you from big stress in the future.

Harry · 17 October 2017

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

travelled 1 1/2 hours to viewing and no agent to be seen....

I never have thought that an estate agent would simply not bother to turn up at a viewing . The owner was in when arrived and was invited in after 30 minutes of waiting outside, but kindly refused thier hospitality as it was awkward for both parties, and also not appropriate that the owner feels they should have to invite the viewer inside to have a look around the property without an accompanying agent. Travelling from another county taking 1 1/2 hours travelling time to get to the viewing appointment after work,... tired and then to be let down,....... no communication from the agent to at least make contact if there was a problem at any point,...and not to mention the time and money wasted to get there. The next working day made a call to the agent's and knew nothing of the appointment so was told that the agent who made the appointment would be in the next following day, and was told that they would make contact and said it appeared thier was some kind of mix up. The next day, still no contact from them. As a cash buyer,... the owner of the property may have a different perspective on who to market thier property....

LM · 30 September 2017

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Very disappointing

Very disappointing. Basingstoke agency used to purchase a property. Took 2 weeks to answer questions relating to property condition. Fobbed off each time with a "I'll get back to you tomorrow" response.. chased everyday for an answer and did not get one until funnily enough I decided enough was enough communication was poor and ended my correspondence with the company. Unprofessional attitudes across the phone when dealing with more than reasonable sensible questions that any potential buyer would ask when investing in a property. Thoroughly disappointed and would certainly not recommend!!!

Hannah · 20 September 2017

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Unprofessional letting agency

Absolutely useless people. Such an unprofessional letting agency. They agreed with the new tenant when he is going to move in which was by the way overlapping our contract as we payed for the whole month, and they have not even notified us about this. After realising that they messed this up these two people tried to force us to move out within 2 days. No communication, no response and 1 month later they still owe us money. I definitely take this case to the court. Not recommended!!!

Kinga · 16 September 2017

★★★★★ 2/5

Trustpilot

Was told if we were to use there …

Was told if we were to use there mortgage advisor and there services we would get a buyers incentive of £1000. So we did but near the end we lost the property on the survey saying steel construction and not mortgageable fair enough just look again. Found another house and put in a bid on the assumption we would get the buyers incentive like we were told and we even asked before we put the bid in then was told the property owners haven't signed up to this so we wouldn't get the incentive. We were told from the start if we use there services we would get it but what they didn't say was you only get if if the seller signs up to it. Think they have been misleading in not telling us this and getting to sign up to use there advisor. So we might lose the next house now.

Mike · 9 August 2017

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

£1000 Buyers Incentive

I've just been bought through connells. Unknown to them we had met the vendor. We put in an offer, and got a phone call from the vendor. He had been passed on the offermminus £1000. He contacted them find out why....very interesting explanation. (We weren't going to use in-house solicitors and had our own mortgage broker. Why on earth would I take their offer of £1000 Off when I would pay their broker more than mine? )Anyway, buyers incentive goes like this, according to vendor. I haven t seen the paperwork, so don't know for sure. If we accept in house broker and solicitor we get £1000 off the asking price. And give connells full control and sight of all our correeponce too...... BUT as we didn't do that they then increase their fee to the vendor by £1000 ostensibly as it's takes much more effort to check our finances and identity as we are not using their in house companies.....So it's a rubbish deal for the vendor and buyer. I also got told they couldn't accept an AIP from my bank! As The EA didn't understand the document and needed us to go through their broker. That's their job, isn't it?So anyone looking to sell their house, read the small print, buyers incentive makes your property less attractjve.

Clairejones1987 · 9 August 2017

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

They lie and don't show up to viewings

They lie, and do not attend scheduled viewings. They gave me a scheduled time to view a property in a busy part of Paignton. We had to park in a multi story car park, got to the property ahead of time, no agent was present. We stayed 15 minutes after the arranged meeting time and then left. I called the Paignton office to find out where the agent was and was told they'll find out and call me back. 20 minutes later, I had to call them again as they didn't return my call. They spoke so badly to me and said that they'll get the agent to call me. 3 hours later, the agent called! He said that he was in the car park around the back of the apartments! First all, who waits in the car park at the back, and secondly, we walked around the back into the car just before leaving and saw no-one! An absolute lie!

Jonathan · 5 August 2017

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Where to begin? A truly awful service. Avoid!

Where to begin to describe the truly awful service from the Rugby branch?Took £150+ up front for a "premium package", didn't get the property onto the market/Rightmove for two weeks and even then the property details were awfully basic and missing key information (e.g. no mention of off-street parking).No sense of urgency whatsoever and slow to respond to communications. To top it all off the branch manager promised to call me last Monday to sort it out as it was clear I was at the end of my tether. He eventually called (after a chaser email Monday evening) on Tuesday at around 1100 saying he had been "busy" on the Monday. He obviously knew he'd failed us as he let us out of our contract without an notice.Compare this to the new agent we went with (Payne's) who couldn't have been more responsive and got the property onto Rightmove within 48 hours, with better photos and property details, and without the need to pay for "premium" package.

James · 3 July 2017

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Poor, Lazy, misinformation **AVOID USING THIS COMPANY**

I recently paid for a top end survey to be completed on a house I wanted to by in February (the top survey you can get)I received my report and decided to go ahead with the purchase, however upon entering the property I could instantly tell that the survey had not been completed to a high standard (there are 4 floors and I was advised by the previous owner the surveyor spent less then 30 minutes there)On my report it advised that the property had a combination boiler, no hot water tanks with instant hot water.Upon entering I found that it was NOT a combination boiler, the hot water tank was less then 3 foot away from the boiler itself, the boiler was in a dangerous location (right next to the shower)I was also advised that he had checked for damp with a machine, however upon entering the property I found evidence of damp, the area manager came around to check this and advised it is where there was damp but it now looks like it has been fixed and is purely decorative, a couple of weeks later my decorator came in and advised it most certainly was not just decorative and needed fixing urgentyThey advised that ALL windows had been checked and other then misting on one window and the fact that some of the locks were a little stiff and needed loosening.When I arrived I found several locks were actually broken and windows had dropped meaning they could not be opened, the area manager wouldn't test any of the others because in his own words "he was worried the locks would fall off and wouldn't be able to close again" (so rather then being "stiff" they were indeed nothing of the sort.I paid £495 ON TOP of what my mortgage lender already paid them to complete a top end survey but it seems the surveyor just stood in the middle of each room for 5-10 minutes chatting to the previous owner and then left saying everything was ok.At the end of each section of the survey they put a "disclaimer" saying "we are not qualified gas boiler/damp/whatever the issue is engineer, we advise you to get a qualified engineer if you wish to have more detail"I can appreciate they are not qualified engineers but not seeing this such a massive 5 foot water tank in front of their eyes and presenting false information is going a bit far and because they put this disclaimer on everything you can not pursue any of the complaints via the ombudsmen

Francis · 26 June 2017

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Just an awful experience

Just an awful experience. Senior surveyor Mr Andrew Spalding turned up to my home which was his first appointment after a bank holiday weekend. Stayed for no longer than five minutes, stank of stale booze, and the result was a very inaccurate valuation. Undervalued property over twenty thousand pounds. Stated we had made no improvements on the report despite the fact we have spent over 50k on the house! This was just a man who had no interest whatsoever. Disgusted.

David · 21 June 2017

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

So bad there funny

The worst estate agents/letting agents ive ever used. Rented a home from the swindon branch for a year and them and the office in cardiff were useless. Never returned phone calls,never logged any of the issues we raised with them regarding the property.numerous calls and emails to get our deposit back while being lied too.was given inventory upon leaving the property and was told there was various damage to the property and the landlord wanted to claim against our deposit. I happend to know our landlord who informed me the house was kept in excellent condition and he had not had any contact from connells regarding claiming.if you enjoy being lied to,messed about and love poor customer service this is the company for you.!!!

Gary · 8 May 2017

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Dodgy and probably illegal collection of personal data_Birmingham office

For the first time in my life, when I asked for a viewing of 2 flats that were on sale in the same building I was asked about: 1) my home address; 2) my family status; 3) phone and email; 4) my savings. When I replied that this is very personal information to be given over the phone, the agent told me that the viewing cannot go ahead without me sharing my budget. I said but obviously these flats are within my budget - why am I calling you to arrange viewings. After I said to her that my budget is the asking price she arranged a viewing. Then the nightmare started: emails, calls, voicemails, letters from 5-6 companies per week advertising flats and investment opportunities across the country. After I complained to them, they said that I gave my consent for my profile to be shared with sellers so I can get the best deals...what?? Btw, the flats were originally put in the market two months ago but they were still available supposedly. Then suddenly the viewing was cancelled on the night before the viewing because they were both sold! LOL. My conclusion: these people make money by selling data / personal information to advertisers without the consent of their customers. Dodgy and probably illegal collection of personal data - avoid at all costs no matter how good the properties look on paper/photos!

Nick · 23 March 2017

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Unacceptable behaviour

When making an enquiry to view a rental property, their agent wanted a lot of personal information upfront, which as I explained, was not willing to provide over the phone. The agent became rude, basically stating he did not want to waste his time and needed to establish affordability, even though I stated I'd act as guarantor, however he then asked me if I earned in excess of £60k per annum and owned my own property. My enquiry was to simply arrange a viewing, his poor customer service and rudeness means I will no longer deal with them.

Paul · 21 March 2017

★★★★★ 2/5

Trustpilot

Why i use Purple Brick

I had three very bad experiences with this company, one on renting a property and two on buying, in two different areas Warwickshire and Dorset. Most of the people i came across were devious and only interested in selling you things you didn't want. Luckily i sold my house through Purple Bricks, it not only saved me £3000, but because everything is done online the estate agents can't con you, as you e mail directly with the people interested in buying your property, or the one you want to buy.if you need a traditonal estate agent which some people might, go to the independent local ones, not the national chains

Mr · 20 February 2017

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Don't Buy a House Listed by Them

A warning for anyone about to trust them with one of the biggest decisions of your life.

Louise · 20 April 2025

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Shocking company

This company is shocking undervalued by £45,000, can't get any answers as to why , if a buyer wants to use this company my answer is refuse!!!

Lindsay · 8 December 2024

★★★★★ 5/5

Trustpilot

Mr Gordon

I have been dealing with this local branch for almost 5 Years! Natalie Bates in particular has been fantastic! always going that extra mile to help.I have a property in Digbeth Birmingham who this branch have manage fully for a number of years.They stated from the outset they had waiting tenants for this area, and have not disappointed. My Apartment has never been empty during the time they have looked after it.I would most certainly strongly recommend this firm.So impressed with them for my personal requirements, that I now have a relationship with them on corporate basis too.

Julian · 16 November 2016

★★★★★ 5/5

Trustpilot

Happy buyer and seller

In my 20 years of buying properties throughout the country I have bought and sold lots of properties and I would like to thank the team at the Wolverhampton branch along with it's staff who I have dealt with for many years. I just want to say they stand out as the single best team I have dealt with during this time. This would include some of the biggest property companies in the country. Well done guys and thank you.

Mr · 22 October 2016

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Sittingbourne Branch AVOID AVOID AVOID

Brand new company, unfortunately has come to town. Loud speaking, cocky know it all sales, unreliable mortgage advisor who can't be bothered to return a customers phone call, so you really think I'm going to a) give you £500 for setting up a mortgage and b) let you in my front door to give me a market appraisal - when you don't return calls and emails?? I hope all the other estate agents in town read this and it spreads how awful and unreliable you really are. And this really boils down to the general manager who ever you are. Bad news spreads quicker than good!!!

Mr · 20 October 2016

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

DO NOT USE - DO NOT CARE & BREACH GOVERMENT RULES

This is there worst experience I have ever had in terms of a letting agency. Branch don't care as pass buck to property management company who also don't care. They said here's your landlords number and deal with it. Thankfully we had a nice landlord but who knows why he would pay them a fee. Despite repeated warnings about breaching government code for return of deposit - we still have not had it even though we had full agreement. Court action here we come - I think the other comments speak for themselves and sincerely hope management change their ways but unlikely.

Helen · 26 September 2016

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Dishonest people

I had a very bad experience with the staff at one of the Oxford branches. Branch manager was very dishonest from the beginning, mortgage adviser was not interested in any communication once she received her money which was upfront. I am not surprised to see the rating and review which they have got. All they want is sale at any cost and once they get their money, they don't care.Lesson, never trust any words from these guys unless you have it in writing.

Aziz · 7 September 2016